Ten months after losing portions of its roof, air-conditioning, some shutters and sustaining other damage, the Police Headquarters building in The Valley is being repaired at a cost of 2.4 million East Caribbean dollars.
That is just about 1% of the 220 million EC dollars, or 60 million pounds, provided by the British Government – in humanitarian aid – to the Government of Anguilla following the devastation caused by Hurricane Irma in September 2017.
“The money is sufficient for what we need to do in the short term,” Commissioner Paul Morrison, told The Anguillian newspaper. “The work on the Royal Police Force Headquarters is interesting because a number of the projects, like the roof, air-conditioning and the shutters, will be done by contractors. But, as you know, the police force utilised its own skilled workers to do a lot of the repair work. We regained the integrity of the police station quicker, and were able to carry on policing as normal, or as close to normal as possible, within a very short space of time.”
Mr. Morrison continued: “We have maintained the use of some of those skilled officers to reduce costs associated with some of the repair work, and also for speed. A number of contractors, released from other work across the island, are assisting us. We need our police station to function, and it therefore makes common sense to get some of the work done, quickly and effectively, by people qualified to do so.
“All the contracts were allocated through proper procurement processes – so the work is being carried out by approved contractors, who have submitted bids in accordance with procurement rules, and have been agreed to, as the preferred contractors, by MICUH. My role is to work with the contractors because there are security issues in terms of working around sensitive areas, the need to ensure that the workers are properly vetted, and that we know who is working on the site.”
Commissioner Morrison estimated that the repair work should continue for the next three weeks at least. He reported that a Project Manager had been assigned by MICUH to ensure the good quality of the work and that all the requirements were met.
He further stated: “It is a well-managed process, and I would like to thank Claudius Gumbs and his team for all the hard work they have done in making this possible – not forgetting Darren Forbes Batey who, on behalf of the Governor’s Office, is coordinating many of the projects alongside Claudius and others.
“This work started in July so it means that we had to work in the police station for a considerably long time without the roof. We took our own remedial measures in the drainage in the flat roof space to reduce the risk of mosquito infestation in the water which would collect there. We also carried out our own internal repairs to ceiling tiles to improve the appearance for members of the public visiting the police station, and to give them a reassurance that we are back to normal as far as possible. We also had to come up with some temporary solutions for our air conditioning because some offices were so hot by the amount of equipment in them, and we needed to maintain that equipment. We had to install some localised air conditioning because the police station’s air conditioning is a whole building model – and is not in individual spaces.
“The Royal Anguilla Police Force is a very resilient organisation as we showed during Hurricane Irma when 98% of the workforce was back on duty within 24 hours. Having restructured the force, our people were back managing the pressures of their own families – as well as the demands that the police force puts on its officers in terms of support for the public. They should be commended for that because they are a very hardy, resilient group and I am amazed by them every day.”
Meanwhile, Commissioner Morrison was asked to comment on the loss of a number of senior officers who have recently retired from the force and how their departure would affect policing.
“A person’s time in an organisation has a lifespan and the organisation needs to be intelligent enough to map out when people are leaving,” he replied. “We knew when Superintendent Allan Coppin and Inspector Sylvia Hodge would retire. In order to mitigate their moving on, other officers were given opportunities to [move up the ranks]. When Allan had been on leave a number of officers were given opportunities to act as Superintendent and were assessed during that process; and a number of Sergeants had already acted at Inspector level. We do this a lot in the Royal Anguilla Police Force. We try to give as many people an opportunity to act in the next rank as physically possible and before any promotion process. The process for the Superintendent post involved three candidates. All of them would have had at least three months in the position of Acting Superintendent before they even go for the interview. I have had a look at them and they will do the best they can when they go before the Interview Board.
“I would like to pay tribute, at this point, to Allan and Sylvia for the contributions they have made to the force and, on a personal level, especially during my time here. I am grateful to them for the support they have given me during a period of radical reform of the force. That’s not easy, having come from a changed programme in the UK. It can be painful and messy. It is just the clarity of vision that holds it together sometimes, and when you have a person coming from a different cultural background, there can be good days and bad days. I want to thank both of them for their support and the hard work they put into making the change programme possible.”
Questioned whether later on there might be a need to recruit senior police officers – to the force – from outside Anguilla, the Commissioner stated:
“My assessment is that there is a lot of talent in the Royal Anguilla Police Force and that talent extends from the lower level up to most senior levels. I think the job of the Commissioner is to ensure that that talent rises to the top in a way which is supported, trained, guided and directed so that when those people are promoted to the senior jobs, they are properly equipped to do so.
“I think that at some point recruiting from the outside can never be discounted, but I don’t see that as a necessity for the force at this time. The force has a lot of talent that can sustain it for a considerable period of time.”
At present the membership of the Royal Anguilla Police Force stands at 115. When Commissioner Morrison came to Anguilla in October 2015, there were 98 officers in the force. Since then there have been two batches of recruits increasing the number to its current strength.
